Question Period Live

The QP Clip: The NDP remains furious about Gateway

The NDP continued its season-ending fury of opposition to the most controversial yet-to-be-built pipeline in Canada. Peter Julian, the NDP House Leader, led the Official Opposition’s unrepentant hate-on for the proposed Northern Gateway pipeline. The government’s allowing Enbridge to force a dangerous pipeline on a province that detests the very idea, he said.

In response, Kelly Block remained composed. The parliamentary secretary to Natural Resources Minister Greg Rickford calmly repeated yesterday’s talking points—namely, that the government didn’t approve the pipeline. The Tories only agreed with the National Energy Board’s imposition of 209 conditions on the project, said Block. The NDP says the government is offloading its constitutional responsibility to consult First Nations onto Enbridge. The government said it takes consultation seriously and expects Enbridge to do more of it with plenty of communities.

The Commons will never agree about this project, a multi-billion-dollar venture that, thanks to legal challenges and all those conditions at every turn, won’t dig into the ground for several years at the earliest. Soon, the fight will leave Ottawa.

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